Arabian Journal of Geosciences (2020) 13:548

https://doi.org/10.1007/s12517-020-05551-z

ARABGU2016

Contribution of Sentinel-2 multispectral satellite images to study

salinization effect of the Touggourt agricultural region (Algeria)
Madina Khelifi Touhami 1 & Seyfallah Bouraoui 1 & Mohamed-Chérif Berguig 1

Received: 25 January 2020 / Accepted: 4 June 2020

# Saudi Society for Geosciences 2020

Abstract
In this paper, we propose a new spatio-morphological mapping of a region affected by the problem of salinization of its
agricultural land. The rise of salt, which occurs naturally by infiltration of water passing through a saline layer through the faults,
is accentuated by poor irrigation management, particularly by the use of Mio-Pliocene’s water with an excessive salt content and
the inadequate drainage system. We use optical remote sensing data that allows us to study a spacious area with high accuracy (up
to 10-m resolution) using Sentinel-2 images in combination with in situ data. In addition to the use of heterogeneous data, we also
combine several methods (salinity and vegetation index, K-means clustering, and artificial neural networks classification) to
achieve more accurate and reliable results by using software specially designed for this type of processing such as SNAP with its
two versions (python dependent and stand-alone). We obtain an occupation map with six classes (dry salty soils, fine sand,
medium sand, vegetation, agricultural land, and buildings) with a surface area of salt soils reaching 23% of the total surface area
against only 14% of vegetation that is still likely to decrease. These methods allowed us not only to delimit the region affected by
the excess salt with more or less intensity but also to highlight its impact on the quality of the vegetation.

Keywords Salinization . Sentinel-2 . Classification . Index . ANN . K-means

Introduction anthropogenic origin such as poor irrigation management

Several causes can lead to soil degradation, but salinization
remains the main and best known. Worldwide, every minute,
3 ha of arable land are lost due to salinity, often irreparably.
This represents 1.57 million ha lost each year due to excessive
salt concentrations (Legros 2009), particularly in arid and
semi-arid areas due to their evaporating climate.
When talking about salinity, this does not only concern
high concentrations of salts but also of Na+ and CO3 (Van
Beek and Tóth 2012).
The rise of groundwater table concentrated in salts as well
as geological and tectonic events can naturally cause the sali-
nization of a soil, but the most common cause remains of
This article is part of the Topical Collection on Current Advances in
Geology of North Africa
* Madina Khelifi Touhami
mkhelifitouhami@usthb.dz
1
University of Sciences and Technology Houari Boumediene, B.O.P
32 El Alia, Beb ezzouar, 16111 Algiers, Algeria
using poor-quality water, excessive use of fertilizers, and
others (Fan et al. 2012; Trnka et al. 2013).
We can recognize salty soil through several clues such as
white or gypsum scabs, the presence of halophytic plants, lack
of vegetation, and poor soil conditions in general
(Daliakopoulos et al. 2016), as most plants have low salinity
tolerance which reduces water and nutriment absorption.
The Algerian Sahara, representing nearly 90% of the
country’s total surface area, or 2 million km2, remains an
important seat that meets all the conditions to guarantee a large
agricultural area, an agricultural surface rich in oligoelements,
groundwater, and solar energy with enormous potential.
However, it is one of the driest and hottest deserts in the
world. It is characterized by a very dry and evaporating cli-
mate; therefore, irrigation is indispensable and comes mainly
from groundwater whose physico-chemical quality is poor,
caused among other things by a high salinity which can ex-
ceed, in some regions, 7 g/l (Khadraoui and Taleb 2012).
Also, the evacuation of this salt water after use in an endoreic
system leads to the rise of the water table, as well as the
salinization of this agricultural land which is one of the main
causes of land sterilization.
 548 Page 2 of 12
In this study, we will deal with the phenomenon of agricul-
tural land salinization from a qualitative and quantitative point
of view through the spatial mapping of a region affected by
this problem, the Touggourt region (Fig. 1). To do this, we use
satellite imagery that has proven its efficiency in the field of
agriculture, particularly in crop classification, crop health as-
sessment, estimating the total production of a crop, mapping
soil characteristics, and others.
We use Sentinel-2 images, which are of very good resolution,
by combining several methods such as band ratios and classifi-
cation, while taking into account real data collected in situ.
Data and methods
Study site
Touggourt occupies the southern part of one of Algeria’s
largest and most ancient agricultural regions, the Oued
Righ valley, an economic entity that includes nearly 50
oases and covers nearly 20,000 ha of palm trees (Belksier
2017). It is located on the northwestern part of the Grand
Erg Oriental between the longitudes 5° 47′; 6° 10′ east and
the latitudes 32° 53′; 34° 10′ north (Boulghorba et al. 2016)
(Fig. 2).
The Oued Righ valley is borded, to the north by Biskra, to
the east by Ouedy Souf valley, and to the southwest by the
Ouargla’s oases, forming a south-north depression with 1‰
slope, over a lengh of 150 km and a width of 20 km
(Mohamedou Ould Baba 2005). The orientation of this valley
a b
d e
Fig. 1 Salt accumulation in the Touggourt region. a Touggourt palm
trees planted in a soil with high salinity, b accumulation of salt on the
surface, c palm trees damaged (asphyxiated) due to high concentration of
soluble salt, d cherry tomato plant weakened by the high concentration of
Arab J Geosci (2020) 13:548
is marked by the presence of 2 fossil wadis: Miya wadi from
the Tassilli and Gharghar wadi which would come from the
Ahagar massif. These two wadis flow together for about
30 km south of Touggourt and are extended by the Oued
Righ, which has a very clear slope towards the Chott
Merouane coast (Perennes 1979).
From the geological perspective; the center of the basin is
occupied by Quaternary and Tertiary deposits; in the south,
Paleozoic outcrops are observed, while at the borders, out-
crops of Mesozoic and Cenozoic formations have been iden-
tified (Busson and Lebeau 1967).
The average annual temperature rises to 22° with low rain-
fall rates reaching 10 mm per year, making de Touggourt
region an arid zone (Boulghorba et al. 2016).
Given the aridity of its climate, agriculture in the region is
only possible by irrigation; however, the region’s water re-
sources are limited to groundwater. In addition to high-
salinity water table, Touggourt is tributary to the Northern
Sahara aquifer system that spans Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya
and which is formed by two main aquifers (Ministry of Water
Resources 2009):
& Intercalary Continental (IC), which covers more than
600,000 km 2 ; this aquifer is characterized by an
artesianism, a generally high temperature (around 60°)
and high flow rates. It is a calcaro-magnesium sulphate
water, having a salinity < 2 g/l.
& Terminal Complex (TC) covering more than 350,000 km2;
consisting of 2 aquifers: the Mio-Pliocene (so-called sand
slick) at a depth of about 100 m with a high salt content of
c
f
salt in the soil, d groundwater upwelling due to poor drainage manage-
ment, and e a small salty water channel with a white salty bottom (drain-
age system)
Arab J Geosci (2020) 13:548
Fig. 2 Location of Oued Righ valley in Algeria (modified from the geological map of Algeria) (Fabre et al. 1978)
up to 7 g/l, and the Senonien Slick (calcareous slick) between
150 and 300 m deep with a lower salinity (2 to 3 g/l).
Groundwater has been overexploited, leading to a decrease
in its piezometric level. This has encouraged consumers to
drill down to the Albian groundwater without reducing their
consumption which caused a decrease in its pressure. Thus,
the groundwater table was replenished by infiltration of irri-
gated water from the TC and IC groundwater and the ground-
water table. However, the recharge exceeded the capacity of
the aquifer and caused flooding.
In addition to that, gravity irrigation predominates in the Oued
Righ region and is located in 90% of the irrigated areas. This
mode causes serious problems of loss of deep fossil groundwater
Page 3 of 12 548
from the aquifer system of the Northern Sahara, practiced
through Seguia, often made of clay, which causes numerous
losses due to evaporation and lateral leaks (M.W.R. 2009).
All these problems in the Oued Righ region have been the
subject of several studies, for example, Belksier et al. (2016),
Bouznad et al. (2016), Koull and Chehma (2014), El
Fergougui et al. (2016), and Mihoub et al. (2015).
Data
The Sentinel-2-B level 2A satellite image was freely
downloaded; thanks to the Copernicus Open Access Hub
which makes its products available to the general public
through the website https://scihub.copernicus.eu/dhus/.
 548 Page 4 of 12
Taken on 02 January 2019, over the north-east of south
Algeria, this multispectral image have thirteen bands with
a pixel resolution of 60 m (band 1, band 9, and band 10),
20 m (band 5, band 6, band 7, band 8a, band 11, band 12)
, and 10 m (band 2, band 3, band 4, and band 8).
Several pre-treatments were used (such as resampling and
subset) to produce an image covering only the study area
(Fig. 3), ready to be processed and classified. These pre-
treatments as well as almost treatments that we will apply
afterwards are carried out under the SNAP software with its
two versions (standalone and python dependent) specially de-
signed for the analysis and processing of Sentinel images.
We also dispose some field data: samples recovered from
boreholes and analyzed in the laboratory to obtain values of
electrical conductivity and dry residue depending on the
amount of salts present in situ. These data will play a major
role in the choice of regions of interest (ROI) in addition to the
use of previous land cover maps and studies.
Fig. 3 Sentinel-2 level-2A RGB cropped image used for this study (false
colors composition for agriculture R, band 11; G, band 8; B, band 2)
Arab J Geosci (2020) 13:548
Methods
Remote sensing is an inescapable method today that has
revolutionized modern science; it encompasses the whole
process of capturing and recording the energy of electro-
magnetic radiation emitted or reflected, processing and
analyzing information, and then implementing it. Fast
and economical, it allows the presence of salt to be de-
tected without being in direct contact with the soil, con-
trary to the traditional salinity measurement method,
which consists of collecting in situ samples to determine
the electrical conductivity or the concentration of solute,
and which has a very high time and money impact.
Several types of noise can affect remote sensing data;
excessive salt accumulation affect the spectral response
of the soil due to the alteration of its properties; it affect
also the spectral signature of vegetations which can vary
depending to their salt tolerance degree. Satellite imagery
has been frequently used to map salt-affected areas; we
site for example the following: Hick et al. (1984), Goetz
and Herring (1989), Mougenot et al. (1993), Dehaan and
Taylor (2003), Fernández-Buces et al. (2006), Fallah
Shamsi et al. (2013), and Ivushkin et al. (2017).
In this paper, multivariate methods were used in or-
der to detect salt presence, extension, and effect by
starting with the calculation of some salinity and vege-
tation indices, then we moved on to the classification of
Sentinel-2 multispectral image; we first applied the K-
means clustering, then we applied a supervised classifi-
cation handled by the feed-forward neural networks
method.
Vegetation and salinity indices
Vegetation indices are a useful way of informing us
about the quality of vegetation by taking into consider-
ation its photosynthetic activity. They are calculated
using mathematical relationships between the different
bands of a multispectral image (Huete et al. 2002).
As the presence of salt leads to a degradation of soil fertility
and therefore on the quantity and quality of vegetation, the
Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) has been
calculated to highlight these alterations.
Salinity indices are also used to identify the presence of salt
and its spread using also different mathematical relations be-
tween different bands (e.g., Rouse et al. 1974; Major et al.
1990).
Most commune and used indices are represented in Table 1
where NIR, R, G, B, b2, b3, b4, and b8 represent respectively
near infrared, red, green, blue, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 8th bands of
the used Sentinel-2 multispectral image (Khelifi Touhami
et al. 2019).
Arab J Geosci (2020) 13:548 Page 5 of 12 548

Table 1 Vegetation and salinity index with their respective formula

Vegetation and salinity index Band ratios Sentinel2 bands Reference

Normalized Difference Vegetation Index NDVI ¼ ððNIRþR

NIR−RÞ
Þ NDVI ¼ ððb8þb4
b8−b4Þ
Þ Rous et al., 1974
Normalized Difference Salinity Index NDSI ¼ ððRþNIR
R−NIRÞ
Þ NDSI ¼ ððb4þb8
b4−b8Þ
Þ Major et al. 1990
ðR−NIRÞ ðb4−b8Þ
Salinity Ratio SR ¼ ðGþNIRÞ SR ¼ ðb3þb8Þ Dehni and Lounis 2012
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
Salinity Index1 SI ¼ ðB  RÞ SI ¼ ðb2  b4Þ Dehni and Lounis 2012
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
Salinity Index2 SI ¼ ðG  RÞ SI ¼ ðb3  b4Þ Khan et al., 2005
Salinity Index3 SI ¼ ðNIRR
G
Þ
SI ¼ ðb8b4
b3
Þ
Abbas and Khan 2007
Vegetation Soil Salinity Index VSSI = 2 × G − 5(R + NIR) VSSI = 2 × b3 − 5(b4 + b8) Dehni and Lounis 2012

Principal component analysis Classification

Multispectral images recorded along the different bands of the
sensor (13 bands in the case of Sentinel-2 images) are highly
correlated, in addition to being subject to distortion (Chitroun
2004), which results in additive noise that is added to the pixel
content. The purpose of principal component analysis (Wold
et al. 1987) is to condense the information by creating new
groupings with low correlation factor from each other (Ng
2017). Statistically viewed, the first component contains in-
formation on maximum variance, the second component con-
tains information on the next variance, and so on.
The algorithm PCA starts by calculating the covariance
matrices of the image according to formula (1):

 1 N h k   i
cov X i ; X j ¼ ∑ X i −X i : X kj −X j
N k¼1
where X1, X2, X3, …, X13 are the variables representing the N
pixels in grayscale of the thirteen images obtained by the
spectral sensors, and X i ¼ N1 ∑Nj¼1 X i is the mean of these var-
iables calculated according to i = 1, 2, 3, …, 13.
The covariance matrix C composed of covariances be-
tween the variables where i, j = 1, 2, 3, ...13. is done by:


C ¼ Cov X i ; X j
1313
One of the most common methods used to process satellite
images is classification, a method of creating significant the-
matic maps from images. It consists in dividing the whole of
the pixels on an image into a set of classes on the basis of
regions whose membership classes are known a priori (super-
vised classification) or not (unsupervised or automatic) (Duda
and Hart 1973).
Unsupervised classification
We started by applying the K-means clustering, which remains
the simplest and most used technique in unsupervised classifica-
tion, especially in the absence of a priori data or information. This
ð1Þ method is based on the value of the Euclidean distance between
pixels (Rekiki et al. 2009) which permits it to divide the pixels of
an image into a set of clusters. The objective of the K-means
clustering is to minimize the objective function E:
k n 
 ð jÞ 2

E ¼ ∑ ∑ xi −c j  ð6Þ
j¼1 i¼1
 
 ð jÞ 2
ð2Þ where xi −c j  is the distance function, k the number of clus-

ters, n the number of pixels, xi the pixel i, and cj centroid for

Then the calculation of the eigenvalues and eigenvectors of cluster j.
the covariance matrix is carried out. Eigenvalues are the The standard K-means algorithm contains 4 steps:
values that verify:

det ðC−λ:Id Þ ¼ 0 ð3Þ 1. Centroid of cluster selection (choose randomly k pixels).

2. Assignment of pixels to each cluster based on Euclidean
In our case, thirteen eigenvalues λ1, λ2, λ3, …, λ13 associ- distance to determine the assignment and recalculate new
ated with thirteen eigenvectors V1, V2, V3, …, V13 were ob- ones.
tained so that: 3. Check whether old and new centers are no different be-
tween two iterations (± a tolerance level).
C  V i ¼ λi :V i ð4Þ
4. Repeat the last two steps (2, 3) until satisfied with 3.
From these eigenvectors, we can obtain the principal com-
ponents Pi; In the first step, the centers of the classes are chosen
in this case according to an equitable distribution of the
N h  i
Pki ¼ ∑ V kj : X ij −X i ð5Þ histogram of the image without taking into consider-
j¼1
ation the voids (hide).
 548 Page 6 of 12 Arab J Geosci (2020) 13:548

Fig. 4 Vegetation and salinity Max Max

index. a NDVI, bSI, c SI2, and a b
d VSSI

Min Min

Max Max
c d

Min Min

This initialization policy ensures that the centers will al-
ways be selected in the same order, which is essential for class
headlanding.
In order to validate the results of K-means, it is nec-
essary to calculate a confusion matrix calculating the
error between the classified image and regions of
interest.
However, the random selection of cluster centroids in
step “1” has a direct impact on the final classified image
quality, not forgetting the fact that in the absence of real
data, it is difficult to predict the number of class k. In this
case, it becomes necessary to use a complementary classi-
fication method that has proven its effectiveness and com-
pare the different results.
Arab J Geosci (2020) 13:548 Page 7 of 12 548

hidden network layer. All neurons x j in a particular layer is

connected with all neurons x i in the next layer by means of
weights wij. The output value of the ith neuron xi is determined
by the two following equations (Svozil et al. 1997):
xi ¼ f ð X i Þ ð7Þ
X i ¼ β i þ ∑ wij x j ð8Þ
j

where Xi is the potential of the ith neuron, βi the threshold

coefficient of the neural network, and f(Xi) the transfer
function.
The activation function is the sigmoid (logistic) given by:
1
f ðX i Þ ¼ ð9Þ
1 þ e−x
The objective of the process is to vary weights and bias
(threshold) in order to minimize the sum of the squared dif-
ferences between the computed and desired outputs values.

 2
E ¼ ∑ xo −xo ð10Þ
o

where xo is the vector composed if the computed values and bxo

k
Fig. 5 Principal component analysis RGB image (false color
composition of components 1, 2, and 3)
Supervised classification
We choose to use the artificial neural network (ANN) classi-
fication method in order to enhance results. Artificial neural
networks known by their performances to determine generic
model from a set of learning observations simply perform the
best output response estimated from each set of input samples
in the learning process phase. The input data can be of any
type represented in a binary or numerical way. These data can
also be seen as vectors, and the neural network a vector appli-
cation (Gatet 2007).
In our study, the supervised classification is performed by
the multilayer feed-forward and back-propagation neural net-
work algorithms, which consist of a representation of neurons
in successive layers, where the first is the input layer, the last
being the output layer, and the intermediate layers being the
the vector composed of the desired values.
We began the training with random values of the weights and
bias and proceed iteratively. In each iteration, the network adjusts
the weights and threshold in order to reduce the error using back-
propagation algorithm based on the following two equations
ðkþ1Þ ðk Þ ∂E k
wij ¼ wij −γ ð11Þ
∂wij
ðkþ1Þ ðk Þ ∂E
βi ¼ wij −γ ð12Þ
∂βi
where γ is the rate of learning (γ > 0)
The best neural network topology is obtained with three
neurons in the input layer (component 1, component 2, and
component 3 of PCA), six neurons in the output layer
(representing the six classes), and one hidden layer.
Results and discussion
The results of the calculated vegetation and salinity indices are
represented by Fig. 4. Concerning salinity indices, we only
present the results obtained by the SI (Fig. 4b, SI2 (Fig. 4c,
and VSSI (Fig. 4d) because most indices give the same result.
Figure 4 a representing the result of the calculation of the
NDVI allows us to distinguish between vegetation and other
objects because the spectral response of healthy vegetation shows
a sudden increase of reflection level at 0.7 μm, while land with
absence of vegetation has a continuous linear course (SNAP
 548 Page 8 of 12 Arab J Geosci (2020) 13:548

Fig. 6 Results of K-means

classification with k = 6: the white
a
color represents the salty dry soil
class, the yellow fine sand, the
green vegetation, the brown
agricultural soil, the orange
medium sand, and the gray
buildings

Class Color Frequency Error

Dry Salty soil 23.063% 7.29%
Fine sand 19.775% 0.00%
Vegetation 17.451% 0.00%
Agricultural soil 15.186% 44.83%
Medium sand 13.249% 1.92%
Buildings 11.276% 50.55%

Class Color Frequency Error

Dry Salty soil 22.869% 1.73%
Fine sand 19.930% 0.00%
Vegetation 16.734% 0.00%
Agricultural soil 15.235% 47.72%
Medium sand 13.581% 1.68%
Buildings 11.652% 39.14%

2018). It shows that the region is poor in vegetation; this is
explained by the harmful effect of the high presence of soluble
salts in this area; agriculture is mainly concentrated along the
“Oued Righ canal” and is almost absent elsewhere.
Except for the determination between of the vegetation and
other thematic, the NDVI is used to detect the vigor of the veg-
etation; the high level of reflection is synonym of the high chlo-
rophyll activity. The NDVI result shows that vegetation has a
low to moderate vitality due to the presence of salts.
After calculating the different salinity indices (Fig.
4b–d), we notice that salt-affected areas are highly
present and are extended over a large part of the study
region with more or less intensity. We note that the
high presence of salt has led to a significant absence
of vegetation. The VSSI (Fig. 4d) representing the sa-
linity level in the vegetation shows that even where
there is vegetation, the land is highly affected by salt
accumulation (Khelifi Touhami et al. 2019); this can be
explain by the presence of halophytic plants (plants that
tolerates salt).
Before performing the classification methods, the PCA was
calculated to reduce the image size, condense the information,
Arab J Geosci (2020) 13:548 Page 9 of 12 548

Fig. 7 Confusion matrix between

classified image (using k-means
clustering) and reference image
using regions of interest

and reduce noise as mentioned above. Figure 5 shows a RGB
image composed of the 3 first components.
The results of the application of K-means method are
shown in Fig. 6. The clustering method by K-means was ap-
plied to the first three components of the PCA respectively; we
present here the results of the first component (Fig. 6a). As the
errors had a relatively high value, we then applied it to the
combination of the first three components thus giving better
results (Fig. 6b). However, we notice that both classes (agri-
cultural land and buildings) represent a fairly high percentage
of error exceeding 40%, which is why the use of a supervised
method becomes essential to improve results and minimize
this error.
Nevertheless, K-means gives us a general idea of the dif-
ferent thematic present in the study area; it divides hold image
into 6 different classes (dry salty land,vegetation (palm trees),
fine sand, medium sand, agricultural land, and buildings). The
class salt occupies 23% of the total area.
Figure 7 represents the confusion matrix comparing the
results of the classified image with K-means by taking into

Fig. 8 Results of ANN

classification with the respective
correlations. The white color
represents the salty dry soil class,
the yellow fine sand, the green
vegetation, the brown agricultural
soil, the orange medium sand, and Class Color Frequency Error
the black buildings Dry Salty soil 22.87 % 0%
Fine sand 23.93 % 16.8%
Vegetation 13.70 % 0.00%
Agricultural soil 15.68 % 4.89%
Medium sand 12.82 % 2.16%
Buildings 11.00 % 1.32%
 548 Page 10 of 12
Fig. 9 Confusion matrix between
classified image (using neural
network classification) and
reference image using regions of
interest
account the three first components of the PCA with those of
the reference image. We obtain an overall accuracy of about
73%. We will try, using neural networks, to improve the re-
sults obtained by implementing several in situ data as well as
the results of salinity and vegetation indices.
The results of the ANN classification are depicted in Fig. 8,
where we used as an input the first three components of the
principal component analysis. We obtain six classes (dry salty
land, fine sand, medium sand, vegetation, agricultural land,
and building). The salty dry soil class has a percentage of
22.87 very close to that found with the K-means clustering,
which confirms the results obtained. All classes show
Fig. 10 Spectral reflectance of the 6 clusters (dry salt land, fine sand, medium sand, buildings, agricultural land, and vegetation)
Arab J Geosci (2020) 13:548
relatively low error rates compared with K-means clustering,
producing a more accurate and reliable map.
Figure 9 summarizes the results of confusion matrix; it
represents the number and percentage of pixels assigned to
each class. It shows very good results: an overall accuracy
of 94.7911% and a kappa coefficient of 0.9367.
The method of classification by feed-forward neural net-
work is much more precise than the K-means clustering,
thanks to the implementation of ROI and the assistance of a
supervisor.
Figure 10 represents the spectral response of each class: dry
salty land,fine sand, medium sand, buildings, palm trees, and
Arab J Geosci (2020) 13:548
agricultural land. We note that the dry salty land class has a
very high spectral relfectance in the visible and near infrared
which confirms the results obtained because salt surfaces ex-
press a high reflectance in the visible and near infrared as
already proven by Schmid et al. (2008), Singh and Sirohi
(1994), and Rao et al. (1995)
We also note the almost unique presence of date palm
as a type of vegetation, being a halophytic plant, i.e., salt-
tolerant; this effectively proves the presence of salt in the
lands of this region, moreover the continuous increase in
reflectance in the visble and near infrared range, as it has
been proven by Metternicht (1998) who indeed confirm
what has been deduced.
Conclusion
Salinization of agricultural land is a very common problem
and is one of the main causes of land degradation, particularly
in arid and semi-arid regions, causing the loss of several mil-
lion hectares of arable land around the world each year.
In this study, we have attempted to carry out a spatial study
of the extension of salt-affected areas in one of the largest
agricultural regions of the oases of the north-eastern
Algerian Sahara; the Touggourt region is known for its very
dry and evaporating climate, accentuating the natural origin of
salinity with several other causes in parallel, including poor
irrigation management.
For this reason, we have used satellite imagery, which
has become an essential tool for large-scale studies. We
started by applying some vegetation and salinity indices
to delimit the vegetation and salt spaces respectively.
Then we moved on to the classification of images by
two methods: the first is unsupervised (K-means) and very
useful as a first approximation especially in case of lack
of data or information a priori on the area being surveyed,
the second is supervised (by neural networks) and more
precisely requires the implementation of several data and
a good knowledge of the region being studied.
The results of the various methods are very conclusive and
complementary, and have allowed us to delimit the geograph-
ical extent of the salt zone (23% of the total area), which is
expressed at the expense of the vegetation practically absent in
these zones and concentrated mainly on either side of the main
water channel of “Oued Righ.” In addition, and based on the
results of the spectral responses, we find that this vegetation
contains low concentrations of chlorophyll, thus confirming
the harmful effect of salt on plants.
The Sentinel-2 images were very useful; thanks to a very good
spatial resolution which allowed a rather precise
delimitation. During our on-site visit we observed two alarming
phenomena: 1) After washing the land exploited by the drained
water, the latter is deposited on a neighboring site and without
Page 11 of 12 548
any outlet or pipe, this generates this salt overload. 2) In the
absence of an agricultural land development plan and assistance
to farmers, the latter use their own means which often remains
limited and conventional and have no futuristic vision. The tech-
nique used for land clearance is based on two principles: The
coverage of land affected by salt by other own brought back from
an area where the salt content is low or even zero; Washing by
cyclic irrigation and dumping salt water anywhere, this creates
reservoirs of water loaded with salt and easily detectable by
satellite imagery. As a solution, we propose to lay out pipes
between each plot to accumulate the water loaded with salt and
route it to a single depot. It is possible to take advantages of this
excess of salt by using it in energy production. Indeed, the most
recent research aimed at replacing Lithium in batteries suggests
the use of salts (especially Sodium) which remain more abundant
and less expensive. We also propose finding an alternative to the
plant species currently cultivated in the region, knowing that
there are halophytic species and even species that can absorb salt.
Therefore, close collaboration with biology specialists will cer-
tainly bring an improvement in the quality of the land and agri-
cultural production.
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